“There’s no manual for unearthing something as dark as this from someone you trusted.”
Face it: We’ve all dated someone who turns out to be different from what we expected.
How much of the character is based on the real guy you dated?
Ryan Hansen and Iliza Shlesinger in ‘Good on Paper’.Netflix
The third act is not real, or I’d face criminal charges.
But yeah, I became friends with someone who I met on a plane.
Me, my friends, and other people, we all unearthed that this person was a total sociopath.
A couple of years later, here’s a movie about it.
Wow, that’s insane.
So this movie isn’t about a woman’s scorn.
What kind of a person would lie about that?
In the movie, this girl isn’t a girl who needed to get taken down a peg.
Nor was she some hapless girl who was bad at romance.
What do you do with that?
I processed it and made comedy out of it.
A great solution, but how terrifying.
I’m scared to ever go on a date again.Don’t be!
So, in real life, how did you find out he was lying?
Did you just piece together inconsistencies bit by bit?
I wanted it to be as close to real as possible.
I have cousins who went to Yale.
It wasn’t like he said he walked on Mars.
So he definitely preyed upon these very real things.
I bought a house before; it wasn’t the weirdest thing.
Once I started asking those questions, I noticed all the answers were a little too perfect.
This movie is about a character going against her instinct.
She’s trying to give this nice guy, who she wouldn’t normally go for, a chance.
There’s a reason you’re not attracted to the person.
It’s so important to listen to your instincts when it comes to dating.
And a friend was like, “Give him the chance.”
So just go with it."
It’s alway about him being attracted to her.
So a little bit of that rubbed off on Andrea.
But it was so funny.
We had an extra in the jury who kept falling asleep.
When you found out the real-life guy was a complete liar, were you afraid at all?
Lying like that is super creepy.
Sleeping with someone under false pretenses is creepy!
In real life, there’s no manual for unearthing something as dark as this from someone you trusted.
So it was a combination of nervousness and not wanting it to be true.
I don’t know if he knew who I was before I met him on the plane.
I remember when I went to his friend’s house in real life and they told me about him.
His mom doesn’t have cancer."
I remember feeling completely alone and small.
I went home and fell asleep for like 15 hours.
They’re the opposite of me and everything."
I made an active decision: “I will never pay this forward.
I will never, ever take this out on a guy I date.”
I was very honest moving forward.
I would say, “Hey, I’m not really ready for a relationship.
It was almost like his dishonesty made me even more honest in dating.
I came out a healthier person after what happened with that guy.
Then after, I started writing the script as a cathartic process.
Now that I look at it, it’s funny, I don’t think about him.
I think about my character.
I think about the comedy.
I think about the movie.
So there’s no anger there.
I’m happy to talk about it.
Ryan Hansen is so good at being creepy.
How did he get involved?
Full disclosure: I had never heard of Ryan.
Kimmy [Gatewood, the director] had the idea of Ryan and brought it up to him.
But he was like, “I’ve got a tooth guy.
I’m going to wear these caps.
I’m going to dye my hair.
I’m going to wear glasses.”
Then we dressed him.
And then Margaret Cho was such a slam dunk.
She was so perfect.
Plus, we get along in a special way in real life.
Is Andrea’s nemesis Serrena (Rebecca Rittenhouse) based on anyone?
She’s not a specific person.
I think it’s a very real storyline, especially in Hollywood.
And there are a billion Serrena Halsteads.
Andrea is someoneelse’sSerrena Halstead.
There are people who feel that way about me.
It’s just human nature.
I talk about this in my stand-up.
Andrea is a great example of a girl who did not deserve it.
So it’s a very honest story.
Do you wonder how the real-life guy will react if he sees this movie?
My honest answer is that this movie is not a revenge movie.
I made this for me.
From the bottom of my heart, I don’t care if he ever sees it.
The point was not to make him feel bad.
It was for me to create a vehicle for myself and do something steeped in honesty.
So it’s funny, there’s actually no revenge fantasy.
Andrea doesn’t come out of this worse or better.
Good on Paperis streaming now on Netflix.
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